Why Kerry Failed at Peace

e failure of Secretary of State John Kerry’s Middle East peace initiative has left relations between Israelis and Palestinians in worse shape than before he started. If talks are not restarted immediately and under very different terms, it might discourage future U.S. presidents from trying for peace. Failure also encourages the parties to get back to the blame game and to take negative unilateral steps against each other.

 

But success is not possible without a radical rethinking of the American approach. Ambassador Martin Indyk, the U.S. special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, declared in Washington last week that the entire American approach to peace talks was based on the idea that interim agreements do not work. Referring to the 20 years that have passed since Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat shook hands at the White House and set the Oslo peace process formally in motion, Indyk declared the effort an overall failure. “An interim period that was designed to build trust has in fact exacerbated mistrust,” he said, explaining that this was why the Obama administration had pushed for a permanent, conflict-ending solution.

Read More: Why Kerry Failed at Peace – Yossi Beilin – POLITICO Magazine.